After Steve Jobs issued a letter explaining why Apple was not about to license …

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Steve Jobs' recent letter about DRM has caused quite a stir, although people are still reading the tea leaves to determine exactly what Jobs thinks and why he's thinking it now. The RIAA's own tea leaf reader came away from the document with a bizarre interpretation: Apple wants to license FairPlay.

If you've read the letter, you'll remember that what Jobs actually did was explain why Apple was not going to license its DRM for use on other players due to alleged concerns about security. But in a response sent to the L.A. Times, the RIAA applauded Apple for saying exactly the opposite.

"Apple’s offer to license Fairplay to other technology companies is a welcome breakthrough and would be a real victory for fans, artists and labels," said the trade group in a statement. "There have been many services seeking a license to the Apple DRM. This would enable the interoperability that we have been urging for a very long time."

Whatever you think about the RIAA, its employees can certainly read; we're almost positive about that. So what we have here is probably just a bit of Jobs-baiting, but the sentiment seems sincere enough. As we argued when first discussing the Jobs letter, the music labels have started to consider removing DRM, but they would much prefer to keep DRM so long as it works flawlessly on multiple players and provides a better consumer experience.

If the labels were serious about interoperability, they could have it right now—just remove the DRM altogether. As Jobs pointed out, the labels are selling the vast majority of their music on uncompressed, unencrypted CDs, anyway. This wouldn't help subscription services, which depend on DRM and probably will forever, but it would instantly allow other stores from Sony, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, and more to compete with iTunes, which could weaken Apple's chokehold on the labels. Plus, the labels would sell more tracks; most people around the Orbiting HQ won't buy from iTunes because of the DRM restrictions, and companies like eMusic have shown that money can be made selling open files.

The Economist, in a new editorial on the subject, calls the letter "transparently self-serving," but says that "it also happens to be right." If Jobs plays any part in making most DRM go away, then he certainly earns the right to say, "Boom!"